Hosted Station or self-hosted Agent Box?
The Agent Box runtime under Station is open source. You can pay us to run it or run it yourself, and the choice mostly comes down to how much upkeep you want to own.
$39/month for one Station, plus your own AI subscription. Your first hour is free, no card needed. After that, a card starts a 7-day free trial (one per customer). Checkout shows the exact date of your first charge.
How to decide.
- 01
Know what you need
Work out where it should run, and how much of keeping it healthy you want to do yourself.
- 02
Count the real cost
A server is cheap, but your evenings aren’t. Add up the machine, the upkeep and your time before you compare.
- 03
Try one real task
Connect an agent, run a real project, disconnect and come back. Try sharing a link too before you decide.
Side by side.
| What matters | Defang Station | Self-hosted Agent Box |
|---|---|---|
| Who keeps it running | We do. | You do. |
| Where it runs | Defang’s cloud, in the United States, Canada or the European Union. | Anywhere you can run it. |
| What it costs | Flat monthly fee, plus your own AI account. | Your machine and your time, plus your own AI account. |
Defang put this together from each product’s own documentation, reviewed 2026-09-25. We didn’t test speed. Check current terms before you choose.
Pick Station to skip the setup
Your Station arrives with both agents ready to sign in, and we keep it reachable and running on our cloud account, so there’s no server bill of your own. You get one Station per account today, with no shared seats.
Pick self-hosting to own it all
Agent Box runs on your own machines or your own cloud account, anywhere you want. You choose everything, and you’re also the one paying for the server and looking after it.
You can switch later
Keep your code on GitHub and keep notes on what your project needs. Moving between the two takes real work (files, sign-ins, testing), but nothing stops you from doing it.
Before you start.
Is self-hosting always cheaper?
The machine usually costs less, and your time usually costs more. If you enjoy looking after servers, self-host. If you don’t, that’s what the fee is for.
Is Station itself open source?
The runtime underneath, Agent Box, is open source. Station is the hosted product built around it.
Sources and further reading
Bring your agent. Give it Superpowers.
Start your Station →Read the connection guide →